Challenges
In Strike Force Heroes series, Challenges are a series of missions not connected by storyline, typically involving special weapons or loadouts, different rules or altered gameplay. Strike Force Heroes 2 has 15 challenges, and the player can choose to play each challenge on Normal, Hard, or Insane, just like as in Campaign. The challenges themselves vary a lot, with many of them requiring specific strategies to play them effectively. The article provides descriptions for each challenge, and tips and strategies where applicable. Basic info and tips: * This article lists only challenge-specific tips. See the Game modes article for general tips on specific modes. * In missions where your weapons are replaced with something else, your attachment equipped will take the effect anyway, even if it isn't compatible with given weapon type. This can be abused a lot, e.g. attaching the damage-increasing Loudener to a weapon whose type normally doesn't support it, like a SMG. * Some missions can be simplified significantly by using specific equipment, which in turn is restricted to certain classes, making some classes much better than others for a specific challenge. Like, if there is a lot of nasty status effects flying around, choose the Juggernaut with the Resistance skill, and those status effects no longer affect your character... unless skills are fixed for that mission and cannot be changed. * As in Campaign, when a mission is cleared on a high difficulty, lower difficulties are automatically marked as completed for this particular mission. In many challenges, the difference between Hard and Insane difficulties is neglible, so you can skip Hard and jump right to Insane and feel no difference, saving some time for not playing them on Hard separately. Advanced Mechanics Quick description Everyone has permanent Combat Drones... Except you. * Map: Market * Mode: Deathmatch * Players / Teams size: FFA 5 * Kills to Win: 25 * Recommended level: 10-18 (Normal) | 35-42 (Hard) * Special: Everyone except you is given a permanent Combat Drone, this does not block them from using any killstreaks they may have. You get '''20%' less experience.'' Deeper analysis Just don't get into the drones' range and think of this challenge as an ordinary deathmatch. If your weapon only works at close range, it might be the worth it to temporarily change the weapon or class you're playing with. Fortress War Quick description Battle Turrets! Battle Turrets everywhere! * Map: MansionThe game incorrectly labels it as Mansion (Dusk), even though it shows the correct icon of Mansion. * Mode: Capture the Flag * Players / Teams size: 3 VS 3 * Flags to Win: 5 * Recommended level: 10-18 (Normal) | 35-42 (Hard) * Special: Everyone's passive skill is replaced with Auto Streak 3, giving them one killstreak point each 0.1 seconds. Everyone's killstreak is replaced with Battle Turret. No killstreak notifications in form of pop-up messages; combat log still lists them. You get '''50%' less experience.'' Deeper analysis With Auto Streak 3, the Battle Turret becomes available in 0.4 seconds, with no kills required. Sadly, it's still not possible to place more than one turret at a time; considering this, the Auto Streak is here only for quick killstreak recharge, allowing you to place the turret again almost immediately after it gets destroyed. As of whether destroy the turret or kill the person who placed it: Enemy soldiers typically have less health than turrets, and when they die, so do turrets they created. However, they typically do more damage than their turrets, and may currently be on the opposite side of the map, making them time-consuming to reach — by the time you get to him, the turret may have already self-destructed. So, if something needs to be done with that one annoying turret, it'd be simpler to aim at the turret itself rather than its owner — unless he is somewhere close and has weak weapons. Waiting also works, if you can afford the time. One of possible strategies for the challenge would be to take the Juggernaut (or possibly the General, though his low health would be a problem) with a full or semi-auto shotgun (these types of shotguns top at 500+ DPS) and a high damage and range secondary like Kriss Kard, Desert Eagle or Throwing Knife. Wait for one (or even better, both) of teammates to go for the flag and walk behind them, using the secondary weapon to help them fight anyone they may encounter before the enemy base. Using a teammate as a meat shield like that, you won't be wasting your health too early. When you get close to enemy fortifications, bring out the shotgun, walk forward and destroy all the turrets and men in the way. This is the part where Juggernaut's high health pool shines, as he can afford being shot a lot as long as the enemy dies first, and with a strong enough shotgun it's easily doable. If you get damaged critically (or see it'll happen in a few seconds), deploy the turret as if it was designed to be a portable meat shield, and crouch behind it, all while continuing to fire upon any visible enemies. Now, assuming all the enemies are dead, quickly take the flag and retreat the way you came here, dropping turrets on the way if anyone spawns on your tail. Repeat five times to win. Wizards in Space Quick description Wizards, in Space! * Map: Isolation * Mode: Deathmatch * Players / Teams size: FFA 6 * Kills to Win: 30 * Recommended level: 14-21 (Normal) | 35-42 (Hard) * Special: Everyone's primary weapon is replaced with Magic Wand, and secondary weapon is replaced with Reflection Beam. You get '''50%' less experience.'' Deeper analysis Right onto the business: * Magic Wand is explosive, and is affected by fire/explosive resistances. Therefore, the Mercenary and the Juggernaut would work the best, as they have abilities or/and equipment that can lower incoming damage from explosives. * Since Magic Wand is not an insta-hit weapon, it is susceptible to the double damage bug. * AI never uses Reflection Beam, so don't worry about bots reflecting attacks — they won't. Whether Mercenary or Juggernaut is better is debatable; both have pros and cons over the other, see below. ; Mercenary * Blast Plate armor and No Sweat skill allow to reduce magic balls' non-status damage by 60% all the time. Surge killstreak gives an additional 25% when it is active, if you'd want even more explosive resistance; Bloodthirst killstreak allows easy health recovery. * Cannot shield from status effects besides burning. Acid will hurt a lot. * Can use Red Dot attachment to counter Wand's poor acuracy. * Can abuse the double damage bug for free if an opportunity rises, thanks to No Sweat. ; Juggernaut * With No Sweat unavailable, there's only Blast Plate for 30% explosive damage reduction. Sub Zero and Static Field killstreaks give an additional 30% when active. * Can get full immunity against Wand's status effects through corresponding passive skill, Resistance. Acid is no longer a thing. * Can use Hair Trigger attachment for a DPS enchancement on Magic Wand. * Abusing the double damage bug does more harm than good. Tactics are not much different from usual deathmatches when you've been given below-average weapons — kill the enemies one by one, preferably hunting for low health ones, and try to not get surrounded. Remember to reflect and dodge at least some of their attacks and you should be fine. And, when using Reflection Beam, keep in mind it's possible that a magic ball hits somewhere close to you but out of Beam's range, so you can't reflect it, getting hurt by splash damage unless you run away in time. Forum Defender Quick description Defend the forums! * Map: Factory * Mode: Team Deathmatch * Players / Teams size: 1 VS 5 * Kills to Win: 21 (with the enemy team starting with 20 kills) * Recommended level: 14-21 (Normal) | 38-46 (Hard) * Special: Your primary weapon is replaced with Ban Hammer and you have no secondary weapon. Your passive skill is replaced with Repair Bots, and you get 10xBefore game version 1.8, it gave only a 7× health boost. health. You get '''60%' less experience.'' Deeper analysis That's it, a ton of health but only a melee weapon, while the enemies all have ranged weapons. Since the score limit is 21 and the enemies start with 20 kills, you're only allowed to die once... unless they manage to suicide, lowering their score. The enemies, despite having pre-defined names, are assigned random equipment and weapons. If someone gets an explosive or elemental weapon, running into him and making him kill himself will basically give an extra life. And, while giving kills to the enemies is not good, suiciding is perfectly acceptable: when things go bad, you can try to jump into the light column (only if there are no enemies close to finish you off, of course) and let it soak you up into the suicide zone — this way you don't give enemies any score, and only lose one point yourself. Due to the huge health boost, it's advised to use Juggernaut to take the most benefit from it — with level 50 Juggernaut you get a whopping 3000 health! Static Exoskel armor gives melee damage boost, take it for a direct damage output increase. As for most notable options of attachments, it'd be either Deflection Plate and its damage resistance, so the thousands of health deplete slower, or Fuel Injector, which would give an extra damage boost for free, as increasing ammo consumption doesn't work with a weapon that has infinite "ammo", or Hair Trigger, to decrease the time between swings. Mercenary can work too, mainly because of Bloodthirst allowing simple healing, but he lacks everything else. Although Ban Hammer is strong (maxing out at around 230 damage per swing at your soldier's level 50), it has a somewhat low rate of fire (about 1.4 swings per second). Its damage will not be enough to one-hit-kill the toughest classes on harder difficulties, hence recommendations of Static Exoskel and Fuel Injector — the more power a single swing has, the more are chances a second swing wouldn't be required, nullifying the vulnerability window of ≈0.7 seconds between the swings. However, even with all the damage buffs it's still likely that enemy Juggernauts won't go down in one hit, so be prepared to take some damage from them and other high health guys. In-game, hunt for lone soldiers and only go for a large group of enemies if they mostly have weak weapons and you're sure you'll kill them. You'd be surprised how quick can 3000 health go down when all five enemies shoot at you at the same time. The enemies tend to visit the top of the map often, take caution whenever you'd want to go here. Don't rush for score and take your time to regenerate health and you'll be alright. Hackers Quick description "These servers suck! Everyone is using wall hack!" * Map: Base * Mode: Capture the Flag * Players / Teams size: 3 VS 3 * Flags to Win: 5 * Recommended level: 14-21 (Normal) | 38-46 (Hard) * Special: Nobody can use any of their killstreaks and passive skills; instead, everyone is given a permanent form of the Wall Hack killstreak. You get '''40%' less experience.'' Deeper analysis Wall Hack has no impact on projectiles that rebound off terrain. This includes EX 41, M32 and Throwing Knife; using them would most likely be disadvantageous as you'll easily bump into a situation where the enemy can shoot at you through a wall but you can't fire back. Long range weapons have the most benefit, as they fire far and now cannot be hidden from, though pretty much any non-melee weapon can work. Since hiding is not much of an option, hope for enemies to get short ranged weapons or weak medium- and long-range weapons (and quite possibly restart if they all happen to be snipers). When capturing the flag, better hope that nobody shows up close while you travel back to your base, and if they do, try to run away from their efficient range, or possibly kill them before they kill you, if you have a truly strong secondary weapon and a lot of spare health. Going Solo Quick description Your enemies have great composition, take caution while fighting. * Map: Market * Mode: Team Deathmatch * Players / Teams size: 1 VS 4 * Kills to Win: 15 * Recommended level: 14-21 (Normal) | 38-46 (Hard) * Special: The enemies are all Generals, one with Regen Boost killstreak, one with Aim Boost, one with Critical Boost and one with Morale Boost. The enemies are given the Auto Streak 1 passive skill, giving them one killstreak point each 1.5 seconds. You get '''20%' less experience.'' Deeper analysis As you can see from the quick description above, the enemies use killstreaks a lot. Regen Boost and Aim Boost do not give big benefits and can be ignored, while Critical Boost and Morale Boost give a much more noticeable enhancement to their already high DPS, and that's bad... though not much can be done to counter that. General''ly, there are two different strategies available when facing medium-range-but-high-DPS enemies: * Engage them from a high distance. Their magnums and shotguns are suited for medium range at best, and most of them cannot be used at long range at all. As long as you keep yourself far enough from the enemies, they simply wouldn't be able to cause any harm to you. * Ambush. Suddenly pop up in front of them and kill them in a single shot (or possibly multiple strong shot with very low delay between them), so they have no time to react and counterattack. Rocket Race 2.0 Quick description 1 word, boom. * Map: Isolation * Mode: Gun Game * Players / Teams size: FFA 5 * Kills to Win: 25 * Recommended level: 14-21 (Normal) | 35-42 (Hard) * Special: Special weapons (see below for a list). Everyone's skill is replaced with Booby Trap, and everyone's killstreak is replaced with Combustion. Bots do 80% less self-damage. ''You get '''50%' less experience.'' Deeper analysis Weapons list (click Expand to view): # RPG # XM 25 # Stinger # EX 41 # Javelin # M32 # Commando # Thumper # Flamethrower # Magic Wand # Sheep Cannon # RPG # XM 25 # Stinger # EX 41 # Javelin # M32 # Commando # Thumper # Flamethrower # RPG # XM 25 # Stinger # Magic Wand # Sheep Cannon Tactics are not much different than in a regular gun game, just remember you are dealing with explosives, and that skills and killstreaks are fixed. One notable thing would be the Blast Plate armor, that reduces explosive and fire damage taken by 30%, usable only by Mercenaries and Juggernauts. It'll help. Pacifism Quick description Your weapon deals no damage, but can reflect enemy attacks. * Map: Convoy * Mode: Domination * Players / Teams size: 1 VS 4 * Points to Win: 75 * Recommended level: 14-21 (Normal) | 38-46 (Hard) * Special: You only have Reflection Beam as a weapon, and your health is doubledHealth boost was added in game version 1.5, instead of properly addressing challenge's core problems. The boost didn't make a major difference.. Enemies have no secondary weapons. Deeper analysis In the community, this one has earned a title of a stupidly difficult challenge, and for a reason. First of all, this is a 1 VS 4 Domination, which already rings a bell. In a game mode where you must control certain static spots across the whole map, one team outnumbering another one plays a huge role, as they can be doing much more things at the same time, e.g. simultaneously capturing two or three of your hard-earned flag points. This cannot be countered, as simultaneously protecting two or more flag points is a difficult task requiring strong and, considering the distance between flag points, long range weapons and a good position... And here comes the second problem: you do not have a proper option of attacking. The only way to counter someone capturing your flag point is to crouch right on the flag and swing the Reflection Beam non-stop, waiting for the enemy to kill himself, while the other enemies can freely do all they want. Reflection Beam's rate of fire (≈3.3 rps) and the number of reflection frames (10) allows to keep reflection going on forever, making the player nearly invincible to frontal attacks, and often to attacks from behind too. However, this requires clicking about 3.3 times per second for the whole time when reflection is needed. For this reason, the General with the Full Auto skill is a popular choice, replacing inconvenient rapid clicks with just holding down the left mouse button. In case rapid clicks are not a problem for you, a Juggernaut with a Deflection Plate is recommended, for further defenses. In-game, try to capture primarily side flags points, and only go for the central one if you have nothing better to do. Bots rarely (if ever) go specifically for flag points, preferring to pointlessly run around, and with these flag points being located somewhat far from the center of the map, there's a chance they'd stay captured and unnoticed for a while. As mentioned above, when someone is capturing your flag point and you can reach it relatively quickly, run to it, crouch near the enemy and repeatedly swing the Beam with the cursor positioned in general direction of where the enemy is — this should reflect any bullets coming from this side, with some of them returning back to sender and eventually killing him. Be warned that Elementals' "projectiles" do not seem to get reflected properly, inevitably hurting you a lot no matter how hard you try; if an Elemental-wielding enemy comes to your flag, the only option is to stay away from it and watch it being captured, then wait for the enemy to go away so the point can be re-captured safely. Even if you've been playing the challenge right, there are high chances to lose anyway, mostly because of problems described in the first paragraph. Be prepared for numerous restarts until you get luck on your side. Reverse Gun Game Quick description Kill enemies to -downgrade- your weapons.Before v1.8, the description was: "Kill enemies to '''upgrade' your weapons". Assuming from challenge's name, it's an oversight and it ''was intended to say "downgrade" instead. It's quite possible that the developers have copy-pasted the description from the ordinary gun game and forgot to replace "upgrade" with "downgrade". * Map: Mansion (Dusk) * Mode: Gun Game * Players / Teams size: FFA 5 * Kills to Win: 25 * Recommended level: 17-25 (Normal) | 42-49 (Hard) * Special: Special weapons (see below for a list). You get '''20%' less experience.'' Deeper analysis Weapons list (click Expand to view): # Magic Wand # Throwing Knife # Flamethrower # Cobra # Commando # Javelin # RPG # Thumper # L118A # G11 # Minigun # PKP # .500's # MP412's # Neostead # Judgement # Famas # Scar # ACR # Bizon # PP2000 # Raffica # Desert Eagle # Kriss Kard # USP As for tactics, they are no different than in regular gun game: preferring health over all other stats, attachment abuse, hunting for low health enemies, and similar stuff. Night of the Ninja Quick description Keep an eye on your radar, it may save your life. * Map: Convoy (Night) * Mode: A weird mix of Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch, where the enemies don't attack each other, but have separate scores. * Players / Teams size: 1 VS 5 * Kills to Win: 15 * Recommended level: 17-25 (Normal) | 42-49 (Hard) * Special: The enemies are all Snipers. Enemies all have the Invisibility skill, and for weapons they only have Katanas. Your skill is replaced with Full Radar, allowing to always see the enemies on the radar. Your killstreak is replaced with Battle Scan. Enemies get 1.5× health, have no killstreaks, and never stop moving around. You get '''50%' less experience.'' Deeper analysis The enemies are all invisible Katana-wielding Ninjas. Ways to make them visible: * Watch bullets' trails. When the trail stops mid-air and much earlier than expected, you know you just hit a Ninja. * Ninjas briefly reveal themselves when attacking. But by the time you can react you'll quite possibly die. * Health regeneration during invisibility produces visible green crosses. * If inflicted with fire or acid, the visuals of these status effects will be visible, even though the enemy himself would remain invisible. Other status effects' visuals, consistent only of outline glow, properly become invisible. * During the Battle Scan killstreak, enemy positions on the map are highlighted with red rectangles pointing directly at them. * And the simplest way: they are always visible on the radar/mini-map, which accurately displays their positions relative to the true map. As for weapons: * Homing missiles completely ignore invisibility. However, even when combined with Target Locater, their damage is typically not high enough on higher difficulties to deal with enemies' boosted health; only a high-level Sheep Cannon can reliably kill them, if 2-3 sheeps are fired at a single ninja. * Weapons that can inflict Fire or Acid (doesn't matter how) can make it a bit easier to track enemies on the true map. However, considering that such weapons typically have a low chance of inflicting the statuses, they are not exactly reliable — by the time you get the status effect onto an enemy, you'd probably have killed three of them without any statuses happening. * The M32 grenade launcher can forgo precise aiming and simply saturate entire areas with explosives. No Ninja will have enough health to survive in the middle of this firestorm. The heavier EX 41 grenade launcher also works but to a much lesser extent, as it cannot be spammed as much. * Any rapid-fire guns, like assault rifles or machine guns, can help tracking enemy positions on the true map using the bullet trail method described above. * Heavy sniper rifles such as the Intervention can easily pick off Ninjas when they come to the edge of the map. Stay at the rightmost or leftmost areas of the map and when they come to you, pick them off. As for playing the challenge: * Keep an eye on the radar. It helps. Ideally, you should be navigating mainly by the radar, only focusing on the true map when a precise shot is necessary. It may take some time to get used to that, though. If you are one of those people who are able to read both mini-map and true map at the same time, you'd have no problems at all in this challenge. * Don't engage Ninjas in melee range, it's typically not worth it. Two swings of their Katanas is enough to kill even Juggernauts, so it's better to avoid such encounters by running away or jumping over the enemy. * Relatively safe places to camp out with an ammo supply are the rightmost and the leftmost areas of the map, with the lone truck and missile salvo. Any Ninjas that come here would be easy targets, as they would have to walk through lengthy tunnels and very linear pathways. * However, camping isn't necessary. As long as your weapon allows killing Ninjas at a distance and without spending too much time, you can freely run around the map, hunting for helpless Ninjas. While in most challenges there isn't much freedom of choice, in this one almost any tactic works. You can camp at the sides of the map near the ammo packs, or wander around the map and hunt for the enemies; you can go with almost any weapon and it'll work as long as you adjust your playstyle to account the weapon chosen — even Elementals can work greatly, and Melees are a possible option as well. Being a simple and interesting challenge, it'd nicely fit as the first challenge (or one of the first ones), but for some reason it was placed almost immediately after the hardest one. One more thing to mention is that while all Ninjas are in the same team and do not attack each other, they for some reason do not have a shared team score. In the result, you'd have to get killed 15 times by the same Ninja in order to lose the challenge, which is very unlikely to happen unless done on purpose. This makes Night of the Ninja the easiest challenge of the game. Doom Fire Quick description Fire, lots of Fire. (And snipers) * Map: Base * Mode: One Man Army * Players / Teams size: 7 * Kills to Win: 20 * Recommended level: 17-25 (Normal) | 42-49 (Hard) * Special: Everyone besides the One Man Army has a DSR1 in the primary weapon slot and a Barrett in the secondary weapon slot. Once anyone becomes the OMA, he will be rewarded with a temporary (until death) form of the Combustion killstreak, as well as get his weapons changed from two sniper rifles to one Flamethrower, and get burned as well, taking fire damage until death; upon the death (and therefore un-OMAnization) everything reverts back to normal, giving the sniper rifles back. Dying from burning counts as a suicide. Passive skills are disabled. Deeper analysis Get killed, kill the OMA, get killed, kill the OMA, get killed and so on, that is essentially the whole challenge. Resistance is futile, with a Flamethrower you don't stand a chance against sniper rifles. The only aspect you can affect is who kills you: when being the OMA, try to walk up close to whoever has one of the lowest scores at the moment (which can be checked at any time by pausing the game) — by getting killed by one of the outsiders, you lower potential score of the leaders. Defection Quick description Your team is slowly defecting to the enemy side. * Map: Factory * Mode: Capture the Flag * Players / Teams size: Starts as 5 VS 3, gradually changes to 2 VS 6 as you progress.Before game version 1.8, all of your teammates would eventually defect and end on enemy side; since v1.8, one of them stays loyal and remains in your team, making the challenge slightly easier. And since v1.8 their names are no longer random: those who change sides, as well those who are in orange team by default, are now called Shady Soldiers, and the one who doesn't is now Loyal Soldier. * Flags to Win: 5 * Recommended level: 17-25 (Normal) | 42-49 (Hard) * Special: Each of first three points scored loses you a teammate, which defect to enemy team and fights alongside them. You have 1.5× healthThe health boost was added in game version 1.7, after numerous complaints of the challenge being too difficult. That turned out to not have much effect, if any, hence another balance tweak in v1.8.. Deeper analysis Each of first three points scored loses you a teammate, which defect to the enemy team and now fight alongside them. With the challenge beginning as a 5 VS 3 game, it'll start relatively easy, but afterwards you'll be heavily outnumbered, with all these traitors rushing at your base. At this point it's recommended to not unnecessarily prolong the mission, as that'd be nothing but a waste of ammo at a higher rate than it can be recovered; instead, try to outpace them in the flag capture race and get the remaining flags as fast as possible. There's one big bug: When a teammate betrays you and changes teams, his score does the same, effectively stealing from your team all the score this specific teammate had. Because of that, avoid having your temporary allies capture any flags; better do that yourself. Even worse, the bug cannot possibly be fixed without major patching of the entire scoring system of the whole game. Randomania Quick description All weapons are randomized every 10 seconds! * Map: Convoy * Mode: Deathmatch * Players / Teams size: FFA 6 * Kills to Win: 25 * Recommended level: 17-25 (Normal) | 45-50 (Hard) * Special: Everyone only has one random weapon and automatically changes it to another random weapon each 10 seconds. Deeper analysis This is typically chaotic. In Gun Games, it's at least predictable what weapon goes next, which is not the case in this challenge. In one second that one weakling with a Flamethrower may suddenly get a DSR1 and kill anything he meets... The strategy isn't too complicated — when given a weak weapon, hide somewhere and wait for the weapon to change; when a strong weapon arrives, you know what to do. There's a notable flaw in challenge's mechanics: when you die and respawn, you'll be holding your weapon chosen instead of a random one, until the next randomization changes it. This can be exploited to a great degree. Too Many Mechs Quick description This probably isn't even possible. * Map: Construction Bay * Mode: Deathmatch * Players / Teams size: FFA 3 * Kills to Win: 20 * Recommended level: 17-25 (Normal) | 45-50 (Hard) * Special: Both Mech variants are fully operational. Deeper analysis The Mechs can use all their weapons/abilities seen in respective campaign missions. ; Background Mech of Mission 14 : Death Laser: A red homing circle. Don't let it touch you, run away instead. The weapon ignores armor. : Rippers: A line of explosions at a random degree. Moving away from the line is enough. The weapon ignores armor. : Stomp: Only hits if you're standing. Jump to dodge. ; Walkable Mech of Mission 15 : Death Laser: A red line covers the bottom part of the map for a few seconds. Climb onto Mech's high shoulders to get into a safe area. The weapon ignores armor. : Hunter Missiles: 2 salvos of 3 homing rockets are fired from one of Mech's shoulders. Dodge them as if they are usual homing rockets, which they are. Even worse, they can fire one mission 14 weapon AND one mission 15 weapon at the same time. A double Death Laser combo can very well mean a death, no matter how hard you try, and the only reliable way to avoid it is to exploit the lasers' timer ticking down even when the game is paused. Another problem with combo attacks is that the 2nd big red warning sign is sometimes visible only for a very short period or not visible at all, quite possibly failing to inform the player about the activation of the second weapon in the combo, making it a surprise. The mission starts with you and two random opposing soldiers. They are invulnerable to and untargettable by all Mechs' weapons, with an exception of one of them always being vulnerable and targettable by Hunter Missiles. No matter who got killed by a Mech's weapon, that'll be counted towards the score of that one enemy invulnerable to missiles, often giving him a score lead, as if he "owned" the missiles and fired them himself. Jumping off the map counts as a suicide, as usual. The battle itself is simple: dodge at least some of Mechs' attacks and kill the enemies frequently, and you'll be alright. You might want to get a relatively high health class (Engineer, Mercenary, Juggernaut) for this challenge, to be able to take some damage — considering how small the map is, not everything can be dodged, and it'll be nice to have some spare health. Bigger and Badder Quick description Defeat the game creators once again. * Map: Mansion (Lab) * Mode: Team Deathmatch * Players / Teams size: 1 VS 2 * Kills to Win: 25 * Recommended level: 21-28 (Normal) | 45-50 (Hard) * Special: Enemies get buffs and change weapons as you score kills (see below for lists). Enemies have 1.5× health. Deeper analysis Replicating the last SFH1 challenge, this one throws you into a battle with the developers of the game, namely Justin and Mike. Unlike the SFH1 variant of the challenge, the enemies now change their weapons during the battle (3 times in total), going from pistols to sniper rifles and machine guns, and gain special power-ups when you've almost completed the challenge, desperately trying to not let the player win. With their boss-like appearance, special skins, progressively changing weapons and human-like talking, the developers can be considered the most developed enemies, gameplay- and appearance-wise. Don't let them down and be a worthy opponent. Considering devs' health and damage output, you'll need a strong weapon and tactical thinking in order to be any effective. * Getting close to Mike during his Judgement period will very likely mean death, avoid that. Getting into Justin's line of sight when he's wielding the Intervention means the same, and it's harder to avoid due to this weapon's much higher efficient range, quite possibly getting you one-shotted from off-screen even if you're a level 50 Juggernaut (though that'd require a headshot or a critical hit, if at full health). Try to track Justin's position and never give him a clear line of sight to yourself. ** Additionally, due to both of them having strong melee weapons for the whole mission, it's advised to not get into their melee range, especially Mike's — if you forgot how hard Ban Hammer hurts, play the Forum Defender challenge again. * When waiting for the enemies to respawn, try to take a flexible hiding position that can give a chance to quickly hide behind a wall in case a strong enemy happens to spawn close; an example of one such spot is the slopes of the central platform at the top of the map, which, if you notice the enemy spawning in quickly enough, allow to escape in almost any scenario — if someone pops up below you, retreat to the top, if someone pops up above you, jump down, protection is guaranteed in both cases. ** Alternatively, just kill the enemy if you can. One of recommended loadouts is a Juggernaut with a full- or semi-auto shotgun, like KSG, for primary weapon and Throwing Knife for secondary weapon. This type of shotguns top at 500+ DPS, so they work nicely against the devs, allowing to get into an one-on-one fight with Surge-powered Mike and come out as the winner. Doing the same with Justin's Intervention form is not advised due to a possibility of getting killed right away; instead, take the advantage of Throwing Knife's arc trajectory and damage Justin from a safe spot. With carefully thought out positioning, quick and skillful fighting and a bit of luck, it's possible to complete the challenge with very few deaths scored, if any, with above-average reliability. Another common strategy is to cover the entire floor of the map with M32's or EX 41's grenades as a Mercenary or a Juggernaut, firing them from the top of the map. The enemies walk down here a lot, making it very likely that at least some of these grenades would hit and eventually kill them. Don't get too distracted by spamming grenades, though — since this build lacks effective means of close range combat, you must detect enemies' ambush attempts in time and immediately hide, otherwise you'll be dying rather often. ---- And there the challenges end. We hope they were fun. Poll Which is your favourite Challenge? 1: Advanced Mechanics 2: Fortress War 3: Wizards in Space 4: Forum Defender 5: Hackers 6: Going Solo 7: Rocket Race 2.0 8: Pacifism 9: Reverse Gun Game 10: Night of the Ninja 11: Doom Fire 12: Defection 13: Randomania 14: Too many Mechs 15: Bigger and Badder References